When chickens and other poultry are slaughtered and processed on a commercial scale for human consumption, each bird typically passes through an eviscerator which automatically removes the viscera from within the body cavity of each bird. The removed viscera initially remains attached to the bird, and stays on the outside of the carcass for a time as the birds travel along an overhead conveyor line conventional to commercial poultry processing operations. The removed viscera of each bird is immediately inspected to assure that the birds are not diseased, and then certain parts of the viscera are harvested for human consumption. These parts typically include the heart and the liver of the bird.
In the past, it has been necessary to separate the heart and liver by hand from the rest of the viscera traveling along the conveyor line with each bird. This has been accomplished by a line operator who manually removes a viscera "package" comprising the heart with attached lungs, the liver, and the gall attached to the outside of the liver. The operator is required to isolate this package by hand and then cuts loose the package from the remaining viscera, as each bird moves past the operator on the line. This removed viscera package then is manually cut into individual parts to yield the heart and the liver for human consumption. The gall is unfit for human consumption and must be severed from the liver with great care so as to avoid releasing the bile, an unpleasant greenish liquid contained within the gall. These steps required for manual isolation and separation of the heart and liver obviously are labor-intensive. Moreover, these manual efforts demand repetitive wrist and hand motions which are believed to cause chronic painful symptoms in some operators.